


The Cathedral

by Arkscythe



Category: Freelancer, Original Work
Genre: Churches & Cathedrals, F/M, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 17:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12063615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkscythe/pseuds/Arkscythe
Summary: When the world ends and you're trapped... you turn to find that something greater has left you path... and it only leads up the cathedral you stand in.





	The Cathedral

The sound of the wind howled outside as if screaming from lungs that didn’t exist, the stone walls of a cathedral who’s insides were decorated in gothic themed architecture. Inside, pale stained glass windows still held as the soft sounds of dirt clattering against the stones at the bottom. Within the cathedral rose a tower of stairs that climbed into the heavens, a darkness that creeped into the void as you stared up from the ground, an insect to a giant that stood high above. You sigh as you peer around, various others in a group as they hold injury, faces cut, bruises, burns, and gashes all over others. One woman though draws your attention as she stands to help the others, dressed in a white robe, a nun of some sort that slowly mends and heals the wounds with the means of makeshift bandaging and cleaning with water, behind her the doors to the sacred place within the cathedral barred by chairs, chandeliers, and even bodies of diseased. The world had long since died and here you stood, having run in with these few people into the cathedral that stood as the soul hope in the land despite the oddity that were the stairs behind you. Outside, the building was a normal structure of stone with stained glass that looked brand new and beautiful. However, once inside, it seemed these stairs stretched the cathedral itself, drawing away into an infinity that left the world itself, a hollow echo of various mysteries that many may have climbed before you, though none having made it back down as none such structures or stories were ever told. You look to the woman again then at the stairs before you begin your ascent, leaving the others there, leaving to see what lay beyond. However, after climbing for what seems like hours, you stop and sit on the steps to breath, the tower still growing in size as if in quiet defiance to your own efforts, disproving them to nothingness. You breathe hard as your chest heaves, sweat dripping from your brow as you comb the hair out of your face, your eyes looking down the steps as if intruders may startle your journey before the woman with the blonde hair peers out and looks at you, smiling at your familiarity as you sit there, trying to smile only to sneer instead from how tired you are. Your body aches while she walks toward you, climbing the stairs until she stops and sits down on the steps below you, and following behind her are those she tended to, bandaged, weary, hurt, and restless from the storm outside. Despite the hard work it took to reach this point, you notice how the woman holds no signs of fatigue or aches… that is before she pulled off the robe she wore, a set of casual clothes on her as she sweated before looking at you, tossing the robe over the edge, fluttering down the endless chasm that now stretched below you from the progress you’d made. You heard her soft chuckle and turned to her, her cool blue eyes on you as she leaned back against the stone in the middle of the stairs “What? Expected I could just walk forever and not feel a dang thing?” You laugh lightheartedly at the banter but nod as she scoffs at your answer “Well next time i’ll keep the dang robe on and make you eat your words. You can win this round though.” You two smile at each other before you look up into the darkened heavens above in the cathedral, the tower of stone ascent painted by the pale stained glass. Your voice comes, still tired but now rested, “What exactly is this tower?” The nun looks up with you before her voice becomes almost mystified, a story that plagued her mind when she started climbing “This tower is a very special one. This cathedral was said to stand a solace between the gods and humans, this stone tower holding a staircase that bridged the gap between the two worlds, one where a human could walk upon it and meet with a god. However, the story goes that only the end of the world would allow the tower to appear and that those with the true will to climb this tower to it’s end would gain the audience of a god for overcoming not only the end of the world but themselves.” You listen intently to the story, and though you knew that most stories were fabricated and of fiction, this one which seemed so out of place almost made the most sense and reason considering the situation that presented itself to the outside world. That or you’d gone crazy from lack of hope and choices, this being the last thing you could cling onto before you killed yourself from lack of any other real decision. You stand, the nun following your example as a means of not losing you or being left behind. The injured behind stand unsteadily, and so you begin climbing again as a group. You climb and climb for what seems like an unfathomable amount of time, though as you do so, your body is wracked with pain, your legs aching and body begging to stop. You know however, the same is for the others behind you, unknown that as you had been climbing, few of the people behind both you and the nun succumbed to their wounds and stopped, dying on the steps and lost to the world. Finally, after a while, you stop, only to find that when you turn around to sit down, it is only you and the nun who are left, her blue eyes looking to you with uncertainty and weakness as she two is slowly succumbing to her bodies desire to simply stop… forever. So you do your best to strike up a conversation “So tell me about yourself…” She smiles at you and laughs tiredly for a few moments, confusion setting in before she speaks “God you’re such a bad leader. I’m the only one left and you ask me that, you trying to take me out to a nice steak dinner or something?” You chuckle at the reasoning, morbid, yet comforting considering what the two of you are going through. You look out to the darkness which has consumed the windows and walls, yet the tower strangely the only thing able to be seen. “I was just curious, we’re all people with hopes and dreams, loves and passions, hates and angers. If this is the end of the world then there isn’t much reason to really keep it all in you know? It’s better to just… recognize that there’s no emotions or anything to hide. This is who I am, and I’m curious to who you are.” When you look back at her, the nun holds a wide smile on her face that warms your heart, one that is filled with a gentleness before she too looks out to the darkness. She pats your leg and speaks again, tearing the silence away “I’ll give you my name instead. It’s Jasmine, nothing special or anything but just hold my name. My life’s story is too long and keeping a ‘god’ waiting isn’t exactly good courtesy nor is it a smart idea.” You both chuckle before you stand unsteadily, Jasmine doing the same before you turn and begin to climb again. Time passes as you two continue walking up the steps unsteadily, the only sound the soft taps of your feet against the stone, the darkness growing until soon you reach a part of the tower that grows flat, it’s inside carved out with wood on a floor, held together by metal that shines bronze and gold, compacted either so well that this is only the halfway point or you are nearing the end of the tower. Jasmine pulls you immediately into the hollowed out room, sitting down as lanterns slowly light up at the corners of the metal, breathing as the two of you lay down and slowly sleep takes you.

 

Tima passes…

 

You wake up to the soft light of the lanterns, the darkness here now as you sit up, Jasmine asleep as she holds herself for warmth, her body frail enough to not provide enough heat. You slowly pull off your shirt, not as sweaty as it had been in the time and place it over her, a small comfort to her body as she seems to settle, holding the shirt to her almost desperately. You look to the steps as they rise upward and once again begin climbing. You don’t want to leave her behind but you have to find out what it is that is happening here or even what the tower holds at the top. You climb and climb, not hearing anything below you, an indicator that Jasmine has yet to find out or you’ve completely left her behind before you finally make it to a platform, a floor that spreads out over the vast space of darkness below, a sanctum over you as windows lay in a ceiling above that reveal a light that is warm and comforting, the sanctum holding stairs at the very end with a throne that lay empty. You take a step and immediately a knowledge fills you, as if thoughts, hopes, memories, and lives that you experienced once before all begin to pour into your mind. You scream as you feel unimaginable amounts of emotion, pain, and knowledge surge through you before your screams are cut short, a truth laying in your mind as you fall backward to the floor, your eyes wide, your heart pierced by a sword. Though when you hit the floor, the blade is pushed free and clatters to the ground as you breathe calmly as the truth sets in. You blink a few moments as blood and life slowly leave you, the ground below slowly painting in your essence before you hear a worried voice, soft hands grabbing at you as you’re hoisted to be sitting up. You look up and see the face of Jasmine who’s eyes are filled with tears and anger, yelling your name silently as your can no longer hear, as you can no longer feel. Your words come though, and despite the silent world now presented to you, you see in her face the weight of the words as her lips stop moving. “We’ll… be… reincarnated…. it’s not…. the end.” You smile up to her softly one last time before slowly your eyes close, the last vision of her face as you bathe in a light…

The End.


End file.
